The only thing better than watching scenes from Star Wars on DVD is seeing them made out of tens of thousands of Legos! Or perhaps watching Lego live on the Legoland WebcamI recently took a short trip to Legoland California, now you might be asking how can Lego interact with a movie blog? The Maser Builders at Legoland selected seven scenes to depict, one from each movie and one from the clone wars animated tv show. I will analyze those seven choices.

Episode I : The Phantom MenaceIt was one of the first scenes in a major motion picture to be completely digital. The droid army emerged from their armored troop transports and marched on the cgi band of gungans. From the grass to the mist in the air, this digital battle was very impressive and was only barely possible with the CGI technology in 1999.Since all Star Wars films are marketed as “family films” in the 90’s it is convenient that the major battle takes place between CGI aliens with long eats and CGI robot droids. No humans were harmed in the depiction of this scene.

Episode II : Attack of the ClonesAnother huge CGI battle in Attack of the Clones pits faceless and nameless clone troopers against the evil droid army. This film make it a point to establish the Jedi as the Generals of the clone army. While Jedi are well established to be being wise and knowledgable it seems slightly far fetched that every one of them would be master tacticians of military strategy.

The Clone WarsI have only seen some of the first season of the Star Wars Clone Wars. These series are set between Episode II and III at the hight of the clone wars. This scene shows a towering droid backed by a small army of battle droids slowly advancing on a last line of clone troopers.

Episode III : Revenge of the SithMoments before Order 66 is given, the Wookies and the Clone army are fighting side by side against the droid army. The massive battle tank rolls towards the ocean shore, the Lego model sands over two feet tall and four feet long, and impressive feat of Lego engineering.

Episode IV : A New HopeAll of the models in Legoland’s Miniland are made in 1/20th scale. The models are more like sculptures than Lego sets, with curves and angles formed out of small (one x one) studs built up step by step. The Millennium Falcon sits poised to blast out of Mos Eisley and escape the Stormtrooper attack. This scene marks a turn in the film, it cements Han’s commitment to the Rebels in the beginning of the second act.

Episode V : The Empire Strikes BackThe eery imperial walkers stalk across the icy plains of Hoth. (made of colored sand at Legoland) But you can see Luke Skywalker climbing up beneath the AT-AT. These Lego miniatures are roughly the same size as the stop-motion models used in Empire. Soon these walkers would be tumbled and destroyed. It would have been interesting to see Legoland depict an explosion in thousands of red, yellow and orange studs!

Episode VI : Return of the JediThis scene had a great setup and reveal as the AT-ST approached the bunker Han and Leia seemed caught, thankfully “Chewy” was in the AT-ST. At 1/20th scale all of the sculptures of people are around 6″ tall. I is fun identifying your favorite Star Wars characters among these tiny sculptures. It is similar to pixel art, sometimes you need to blur your focus to see the characters really pop out.

Weather you are an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), a Lego loving child, or a Star Wars fanboy all of the new Star Wars installations at Legoland California were built for you and worth a trip down to Carlsbad. May the force be with you.